On an ideal day for hockey at Wilberforce Rd., two teams who will obviously be closely matched this year laid on an entertaining and increasingly tense spectacle that ended tantalisingly unresolved.

Skipper Rob Garrett gave South the perfect start, though, as he brought off a typical snatch-and-grab in midfield after just two minutes. Blistering into the circle, he drew the keeper and sold the prospect of a late squared pass before slipping it neatly in via the direct route. Though South looked confident, the younger Wisbech side were undaunted and there was plenty of robust work required from the defence, amongst whom Matt Readman shone throughout with a performance worthy of one of the grittier Icelandic sagas. Chris Graveling excelled in the tackle, too, and his speciality of shielding the ball with his body so that the attackers were flattened by his backside was a treat to watch. But coherence at the back was all, and both Eliot Read, marking furiously on the right, and the hawk-eyed Jim Thorpe in the middle kept their eye firmly on the ball for important breakdowns.

A surge up the left wing and keen interplay between Keith Hewitt and the ever-available Mark Pears promised much but Wisbech broke through the back line after 10 minutes when a deflected hit in whizzed past Steve Parker's left post. There was a butterfly moment a couple of minutes later as a flat back pass came perilously close to a high Wisbech attacker, and this was soon followed by another hit deflected into the circle; meanwhile, Garrett had scattered three markers with a clever stick-head shimmy and Lukas Snetler - who also put in a deal of solid defensive duty - jiggled electrically upfield to feed Pears.

Not for the first time, however, Wisbech threw up a doodlebug which dropped and bounced menacingly into the D but Parker was swiftly out to block with glove and pad as the clearance went past a phalanx of Wisbech attackers now running in the wrong direction. After a sharp run up the right from Russell Johnson, Wisbech won their first short despite fierce resistance on the byeline from Readman. The heavy drag flick was palmed away but adjudged to have come from outside the circle and play switched quickly to the other end as hypersubs Chris Baker and Al Sinclair made their bow. Pears and the Wisbech keeper had a madcap sprint to the corner flag, where both were just preceded by the ball, before Snetler boomed a good drive past the post following Hewitt's slipped short. Hewitt, aided by Baker, continued to hassle well up front, forcing the keeper to slide out, while Snetler was tenacious in the tackle and Thorpe turned elegantly on coinage equivalent to 2½p to transform defence into attack.

Wisbech pressed more urgently at this stage, ragging the ball dangerously across the D with a string of passes, and after a couple of whacks in had failed to hit the target, they fashioned a good scoring opportunity in centre D but the attacker, with his back initially to goal, failed to turn quickly enough and struck wide. In the meantime, Thorpe and Hewitt had hared up route one to give Pears a solo chance but the keeper narrowed the angle and Pears, seeking the obvious gap, shot into the pads.

Readman continued to earn his corn with dead-eye tackling and good distribution, notably to Sinclair, but a couple of minutes before the interval there was a collective marking failure as the visiting left winger penetrated the circle and reversed a pass to the penalty spot, from where the ball was smartly dispatched into the net. The remainder of the half was end to end, with Leo Tomita making three great blocks in the left corner before Sinclair fashioned a big shot which was well saved. Read and Graveling then had to repel boarders before Wisbech engineered a deflection which Parker kicked safely clear.

The pattern of ebb and flow persisted into the second half, with Graveling saving South in a hectic scramble in the D and Pears' sniping abilities resulting in a rifled shot into the keeper's pads which rebounded to the hungry Snetler, who looked sure to score with a reverse but was denied by an adroitly-placed defender on the line. There was a lucky escape moments later as a long Wisbech ball from outside the circle hit the post and nearly found its way to a loitering attacker but the reverse aerial bat required for a shock goal was just beyond him.

As the hour mark passed, both sides continued to struggle for a definitive opening, with Hewitt forcing a kick out from the keeper and then charging up the midline and Johnson trying hard to replicate the nifty right-wing moves that so impressed in the warm-up. Wisbech were equally forthright, especially down the middle and on the right flank, and Tomita did well to emerge from major harassment in South's left corner. The central tendency resulted in some bunching and close personal contact, and there was an extraordinary incident in which Sinclair appeared to be caught in a headlock, but the umpires sensibly disentangled the two parties without fuss or cardage.

As the endgame beckoned, Sinclair upped his work rate to accept good passes from Graveling and Thorpe, as well as making an incredible reverse stop while forechecking. But Wisbech were looking increasingly ominous coming forward and with six minutes on the clock, broke clean away down the right channel with the South defence a pace behind. Parker had judged the build-up coolly, though, and brickwalled the advance near the edge of the D with a resounding block.

After Sinclair had again ground out an escape route to the well-placed Baker, a clash of sticks just outside the D led to Wisbech's second penalty corner, a cleanly-struck drive from which Parker made a full-stretch diving save with stick and gloves, leaving Readman to hoover the ball out to safety. Wisbech were not finished, though, despite brief essays from Hewitt and Baker, and Graveling came up with a superb reverse clearance as Wisbech's third short was deflected towards goal. Readman piled on the granite as Wisbech hacked away down the right, while Graveling had to be at his best not to foul when the circle was breached and the attackers maintained close control in probing for a gap. Garrett was chopped down when searching for a last-minute run and Hewitt nearly got the ball up to the right corner in the closing moments but eventually the whistle blew with no advantage accruing to either side.

South may have felt slightly the more relieved at the end as the momentum was with the visitors at that point but the result was a fair one as both sides had their chances yet managed to largely cancel out the respective attacking threats with controlled defensive performances. More cohesion on the right would probably have helped South spread the ball around more effectively and it would have been handy to get in the opposition circle more but Wisbech are certainly no pushovers and looked pretty solid in most areas.

All the other teams with a 100% record after last week have now dropped at least two points, so South remain top on goal difference. There are clearly plenty of tough challenges ahead and the division is already looking intriguingly open.